Pompano! magazine’s City Beat Reporter Marie Puleo. She can be emailed at puleo.marie@gmail.com

By Marie Puleo

Pompano Pier Associates is in the process of negotiating with Apogee Events, a New York-based event production and catering company, to construct a two-story venue on a parcel that’s part of the beachside development project known as the Pompano Beach Fishing Village.

The event company wants to create a space that can be used for wedding receptions, corporate meetings, charity events and private parties.

“I think it would be phenomenal for the city,” said Tim Hernandez of Pompano Pier Associates, the firm that’s developing the Pompano Beach Fishing Village.

Apogee Events anticipates needing between 15,000 and 18,000 square feet for the venue, but the parcel was limited to 6,100 square feet.

The City Commission recently approved an amendment to the development agreement it holds with Pompano Pier Associates to increase the square footage to a maximum of 18,000 square feet over two floors. This would also increase the minimum annual rent paid to the City for the parcel by $2.46 for each additional square foot of enclosed space over 6,100 square feet, and could result in an extra $30,000 per year.

The amendment also increases the size limit for the Oceanic restaurant parcel from 8,700 to 9,570 square feet and the minimum annual rent from $75,000 to approximately $94,000. The need for more square footage is due to a reconfiguration of the floor plan which expanded the kitchen, cooler and storage areas.

The beachfront event space would bring multiple benefits, according to Hernandez, including higher occupancy in area hotels and an impetus to develop additional hotels; more mid-week and off-season business for restaurants both inside and outside the Pompano Beach Fishing Village; increased revenue generated by the Pompano Beach Pier Parking Garage; and increased tax dollars for the Community Redevelopment Agency.

The current development timeline for the Pompano Beach Fishing Village anticipates completion of the project at the end of 2020. It will contain up to 55,000 square feet of new commercial development, including a dual-branded Hilton hotel. The first component in the project to be completed was the Pier Parking Garage, followed by the Pompano Beach House restaurant, which opened last year. Oceanic restaurant is expected to open in late spring 2019.

The event space that Apogee Events is proposing would be a welcome addition to the Fishing Village, said Hernandez.

“There’s nothing like this in Pompano, and very few towns have this type of venue on the ocean,” he said. “I think it would be quite an asset to the overall project and to the community.”